Managing a large group of people in activities like guided tours can be a challenging task for a guide. It does not take a very large number of people in a guided tour to make it impossible for the guide to know their whereabouts at all times. Furthermore, a guided tour group is usually comprised of people who do not previously know each other, so people going missing may be noticed very late. Thus, people may get lost or left behind. The guide has few options in this situation, besides holding the whole group at a halt in order to wait for the missing people.
Even today's tools like real time localization and digital maps are of little help. Tourists can find their way around, but do not know the location of the guide or the rest of the group. Furthermore, the global positioning system (GPS) may not work in some tourist attractions like castles or museums.
The most common solution to the tourist-group management problem is having a guide that sets sync points for the tourists, for example, all tourists should regroup after a one hour lunch at the tour bus. However, the guide has limited options to manage a situation when tourists fail to meet the time and place deadline.
The same numbers are used throughout the disclosure and the figures to reference like components and features. Numbers in the 100 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 1; numbers in the 200 series refer to features originally found in FIG. 2; and so on.